What Lucy Knows
by TRDowden1
Summary: What Lucy knows could have solved the Troubles 27 years ago...


**What Lucy Knows**

 **by TR Dowden1**

 **My little drabble, or best guess, about that Colorado Kid photo of Lucy and Duke. I don't own these characters.**

 _What Lucy knows could have ended the Troubles 27 years ago._

Lucy knows he's just a little kid, but he can help her to fix things. Help _them_ to fix things, she and James. Not just for 27 years, but for _good_. And then she won't have to leave. There won't be any further need for her to, because the Troubles will be gone forever.

James found the place they have to go, knows what they have to do, both through his relentless digging with the Teagues, and on his own. But time is growing short; the Hunter will be here the day after tomorrow, and she'll be gone again.

Lucy arranges with Vanessa, his babysitter, and Duke to join her down by the beach, where James is going to meet them this morning.

Simon Crocker couldn't help them, not that he would have anyway. Which left only one Crocker that could do this, an almost four-foot seven-year-old squirt with messy hair and mischievous brown eyes that had become her little shadow of late.

Lucy's known Duke for a little under a year, but she's grown to love him like life itself. He deserves better than the life he has; the life he will have if they don't end the Troubles.

Vanessa knows that Duke is special, though she isn't really sure why. But Lucy knows.

Duke, long used to fending for himself, shows up early with Vanessa, and Lucy gives them the donuts she picked up, feeling fairly sure that no one at home fixed the boy breakfast, judging by the way Duke tore into them.

Lucy asks Vanessa why she didn't fix him breakfast, to which Vanessa told her that there was no food in the house for her _to_ fix.

Lucy knows that Vanessa's the main reason CPS doesn't come around asking about why Duke stays at home alone with no adult supervision for days on end. The other is Simon and Driscoll's friends in high places who see to it that the Troubles Simon 'ends' all get swept under the rug, while everyone looks the other way. Because that's how it's always been done in Haven. But Duke can change that, now, today. No one else will have to die to end a family's curse, and Haven will truly become a haven once more.

"You didn't say anything to your dad, did you?" she asks him. If Simon knew what they were doing today-it was a thought she didn't want to finish.

Duke shakes his head. "He's passed out," he tells her matter-of-fact. "I told him I was going with Vanessa and he said fine."

 _After today, it should all be fine,_ Lucy thinks, and strokes the boy's dark hair. She determines if they fix things, and she can stay, she'll take Duke in. Why Simon doesn't know how truly special this kid is she doesn't know, but if she doesn't get him away from him and Driscoll, they'll want him to be like his father, like the rest of his family; little more than hired assassins and murderers. And as she takes his hand in hers, he looks up at her with his eyes shining with love-and trust. He's never trusted an adult in his entire life-all adults lie to get what they want, he thinks. But Lucy's different somehow. She doesn't lie to him; and more importantly, _she_ trusts in _him_ too.

Lucy, like Vanessa, knows Duke's different too. He's not like anyone else in his line-he never will be, she feels. Even under his 'Little Tough Guy' exterior, there beats a compassionate and caring heart. Wherever that came from, it certainly hadn't come from his mother, and it sure as hell didn't come from Simon Crocker.

She scans the beach. James was supposed to meet them here, so they can all leave. Why isn't he here? And then she sees a small group of people gathered down the beach. She sees Garland's squad car pull up to where they're gathered, and she feels a sudden sense of dread. James is late, very late, and he is never, ever late.

They walk down the beach, to the knot of people gathered around. They're looking at something-the body of a man, propped up against a pole, and Lucy feels the cold terror grip at her insides as she recognizes the man's clothes.

 _It's James_.

James is dead.

Lucy begins to cry, great, heaving sobs. James, her James, the man who'd come to find her, his mother, who'd struggled along with her and Garland to find the solution to the Troubles, was gone, his lifeless body propped up against a piling.

Garland glances up, seeing Lucy, and he looks so incredibly sad for a moment. But he still has a job to do, and he turns back to talk with the coroner, Gloria.

"Lucy," she hears from the small form beside her. She looks down, seeing Duke's eyes on her face, his expression both sad and concerned. He's never seen her cry, ever, and he wants to help. "What happened to him, Lucy? Did the Troubles get him?"

Lucy knows he's heard about the Troubles. Even though this town does its best to shield its young from them, in Duke's house, he cannot help _but_ know something of them-the people who knock on his family's door in the middle of the night, the whispered conversations he hears his father having, the fact that Simon leaves home for days and then returns home often injured, with a haunted expression that he tries his best to drink away.

"I-I don't know, Duke," she sobs.

"Are we still gonna fix things? I'll help you, Lucy," he says, and she sobs anew, holding him to her.

"Don't cry, Lucy," Duke whispers in her hair. "Please don't cry. We can make it okay, can't we, Lucy?"

Even through all of this, he still has faith in her, that she can make things right, and it stabs her to the heart to know that she's going to let him down like everyone else has done in his life when she vanishes for another 27 years. Duke will be a man in his thirties when she comes again, and Lucy wonders if he'll remember her; if he'll still be willing to help her end the Troubles as much as he does today.

"No," she whispers, tears streaking her face, and touches Duke's own. "No, we can't, Duke, not today." Her eyes search for Vanessa, who's standing there looking uncomfortable. "Will you take him back home, please, Vanessa?"

"Sure," Vanessa says sympathetically, and leads Duke away as Garland finally makes his way over to Lucy. He knows, just as Lucy does. They both know now that there'll be no chance to end the Troubles this time. That in two days, she'll disappear.

She tries to run away from Haven, but she can't. She keeps thinking of James, lying in the morgue. She keeps thinking of that little dark-haired boy, who is somehow the answer to Haven's salvation.

But Lucy knows that Duke can't fix things, not at this time. Not without she and James' help. But James is dead; and she's out of time.

That evening, she explains it all to Duke. She tells him everything he'll need to know for the future. She even gives him her locket, telling him it's crucially important that he hold onto it for her, for when she comes again.

But when she brings James to the Barn to try to save him, Howard tells her that Duke won't remember what she's told him. That no one in Haven will remember what happened on the beach that day. Soon, she won't remember either. And Lucy knows that their chance to end the Troubles once and for all has slipped away.

And as she disappears within the confines of the Barn, Lucy knows the Troubles will just have to keep for another 27 years.


End file.
